


A Man's Man

by General_Button



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bickering, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Set during episode 9
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-08-07 07:47:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7706437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/General_Button/pseuds/General_Button
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After being trapped in an airlock, Lance starts to re-evaluate the way he feels about Keith.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Man's Man

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place during episode 9. I thought it would be interesting to explore how it might have gone if Lance hadn't been so collected after the airlock scene, and things took off from there.

Lance wasn’t afraid of ghosts, _per se_. He’d just been hoping that living in a giant space castle meant he’d never have to deal with things like the supernatural ever again. 

They were on a spaceship! This wasn’t supposed to happen!

As he inched down the dark hallway, Lance couldn’t stop thinking about all the people of Altea that died fighting Zarkon the first time. While they weren’t on their planet, a bunch of them must have perished fighting in this very ship, right? What if they were haunting this ship, just waiting for the perfect moment to enact their revenge?!

Lance steadied himself against the right wall and took a few deep breaths.

It all started when they were trying to filter through Sendak’s memories. They had sat in front of his tank for hours, with nothing to show for it, so Lace did the only sensible thing a teenager with the attention span of a goldfish would do: he left. After bidding them goodbye, he waltzed down a random hallway in the general direction of the back of the ship where, naturally, no one was around.

That was his first mistake. The second was not high-tailing it the moment things got freaky.

He was walking, minding his own business, when suddenly, one by one, the lights started flickering. Soon they all went off, plunging the area into darkness.

Lance froze, frightened but alert, eyes searching left and right for the cause of the abnormality. The only noise that he could hear was the sound of his own breathing, and the blood roaring in his ears.

_The lights just turned off because…they need maintenance! Just like Coran said; the ship is a little buggy right now. He probably forgot to warn us what areas would go dark._

Lance took a step forward, then another, arms cradled against his chest.

His hands were _not_ shaking. The ship was just a little chilly and he still hadn’t gotten used to it.

While he was contemplating the relative temperature on Altea, someone—or some _thing_ —at the end of the hallway came into view for a few seconds before disappearing again.

Lance shuddered, fear making his chest going tight.

“Uh, Coran, is that you?” he tried, voice wavering. The image flickered again, then disappeared. Lance laughed, and it sounded strained even to his own ears. “Okay, stop messing with me, guys, this isn’t funny.”

“Help!” Suddenly, Coran’s voice filtered down the hallway, calling for someone’s help, assuaging some of Lance’s fears.

“Hello? Coran?” he called. The following silence was broken only by the sound of Lance’s quickly approaching footsteps. Then he heard it:

“Help! Somebody! I’m trapped in the airlock.”

“Oh, quiznak! I’m coming!”

Charging towards the middle of the hallway, Lance pressed the button to open the airlock and darted inside, casting his gaze around the room.

He was shocked to find that Coran was nowhere to be found; in fact, the airlock was completely empty.

The loud hiss of the door closing behind him made his heart leap into his throat. He spun around to face whoever had locked him in, but no one was there. Still, he kept his cool, shrugging his shoulders as if this was all some big practical joke while underneath his pockets, his hands were shaking.

“Okay, haha,” he called, loud enough for whoever was clearly watching to hear. “Good joke. You guys got me. Nice—“

Before he could continue, he was interrupted by the sound of the computer informing him that the airlock was opening. In thirty ticks, to be exact.

He swallowed, sweat beading on the back of his neck.

No such things as ghosts, no such things as ghosts.

“Okay, joke’s over; you got me!” He was starting to panic now, and pressed his hand to the doorway, peering into the darkness.

Nothing.

The emotionless voice belting from the speakers began counting, which didn’t help to break the illusion that something was actually going wrong and he was going to be ejected into space.

“29…28…”

“Guys?” He looked around wildly for some sort of alternate exit, to no avail. “Guys!”

_This isn’t happening. This can’t be happening._

He pounded his fist against the glass and tried for a scream, but what came out of his mouth was closer to a whimper. Once he found his voice, he tried again, and managed a terrifying shout, but he could see nothing but darkness beyond his reach.

“27…26…”

It took until the count of twenty-five for the reality of the situation to hit him.

Lance was trapped in the airlock, no one was around, and due to the size of the castle, the chances that anyone would find him was dwindling very, very quickly.

_I have less than thirty seconds before I’m going to be thrust into space without a suit. There has to be something I can do! Can’t I, like, reach my lion telepathically or something?_

He closed his eyes and concentrated. _Hey, lion! Trapped in an airlock over here! Please help?_

He waited about five seconds, but there was no response.

Lance bit his lip until he could taste blood. Shoving his hands under his armpits, he tried to come up with something, anything, while time slowly ticked away.

_I have so much I need to do. I can’t just die like this! I haven’t become a real pilot! I haven’t even gone on my first date, or had my first kiss._

“20…19…”

His fists slammed into the door with all his might. As the countdown continued, fear surged inside him like a tidal wave, and he choked on his cries for help.

“He-help! Somebody, anybody! Please!”

His knuckles scraped against the metal, but the pain was lost amidst his panic. Thot tears pricked at the corner of his eyes, threatening to trickle down his cheeks.

“Please,” he cried, leaning his forehead against the glass. “Please, I can’t die like this. I haven’t even…”

_Who am I kidding? As if I had a chance of reaching my lion—or anybody. I’m going to die like this._

He closed his eyes, resigned to his fate, when suddenly, the lights came back on. Lance’s head snapped up, hope fluttering weakly in his chest before it sputtered into nothing. Lights didn’t mean anyone was actually around.

“13…12…”

“This is it,” he whispered, terrified. “No one’s coming.”

 _You’re seriously going to give up?_ A voice that sounded suspiciously like Keith rang in the back of his head, demanding his attention. _That’s not the Lance I know._

“What do you know?” He shot back at the voice, and immediately felt ridiculous for holding a conversation with a figment of his imagination.

He sighed, pressing his forehead against the glass.

What would Keith do? In some ways he more hot-headed than Lance, which was actually pretty refreshing and….different from the image that Lance had originally formed of him.

In class, Keith had always seemed quiet and focused. Lance, like most of the class, had admired him for his reserved and intelligent attitude. Not to mention his broad, bulky shoulders and that stupid mullet that Lance had to stare at every day. The first day they met face-to-face, he seemed thinner than Lance remembered, and angrier.

Seeing him smile for the first time had been weird. It had only happened once when Lance was barely conscious, but he couldn’t forget to the look on his face. At the time, he’d been floored.

Lance hadn’t realized how nice Keith looked when he smiled.

If only Keith’s fanclub knew that their precious hero was really just a brat that had to be handcuffed to a group of teenagers and took part in a food fight against a ten-thousand year old princess.

Lance found himself smiling. Somehow in the span of a few seconds, he’d calmed down. Enough to start thinking logically.

_That’s right. I can’t give up like this until I show the world what a loser Keith really is. Besides, he would never let me live it down. I can do this!_

“Help,” he croaked weakly. Then, louder: “help! Heelp!” He kept pounding his fists against the door, hoping that somebody would show up to save him.

Then, inexplicably, somebody did.

_Keith._

He came rounding the corner, his back to Lance, fighting what looked like the training robot with his bayard. He was grunting, working harder than Lance had ever seen; sweat glistened on his skin, flying off with every stroke of his sword.

And it didn’t look like he was having much fun. Clearly, something was going on with this ship, and it didn’t have to do with ghosts. Probably. Hopefully.

When Keith slammed into the airlock’s door, Lance remembered himself, and pounded his fist into the glass.

“Ke-eith!” he screamed, hoping to quiznak that Keith could hear him.

“5…4…”

After hearing his shout, Keith whipped around for a split second, his eyes going saucer-wide with recognition. Lance almost melted with relief right then and there, but then he saw the robot raise its arm and screamed; Keith ducked, just barely missing the deadly slice of the training dummy’s sword.

“What are you doing here?” Keith demanded, dodging another swipe by a hairsbreadth.

“I need help!” Lance snapped. “Because if you don’t get me out of here right now, I’m gonna be _sucked out into space_!”

His worst fears came to life when the door hissed open behind him. He froze, mouth agape; blank terror gripped him by the heart.

“I’m gonna be sucked out into space!” he shrieked, lurching for the nearest object that he could cling to: a metal thingy sticking out of the wall. Just as he managed to get a grip of the structure, the vacuum that the doorway created started to pull at him, forcing him to dangle helplessly midair.

He couldn’t help it; he screamed. And he kept screaming, even as Keith finally opened the door and sent the robot out into space. Panicked, Lance reached out, calling Keith’s name like a mantra, frightened tears blurring his vision.

Keith followed his example and leaned forward, gripping Lance’s arm in order to pull him towards the hallway. With a heavy grunt, Lance felt both of them move, and before he knew it, they were back into safety.

Lance collapsed against the ground, gasping for breath, one hand clutched tightly against his chest. He wanted to speak, but his mouth wouldn’t work right. He couldn’t stop thinking about what could have happened if Keith hadn’t shown up, if he’d just been a second too late when stumbling into the hallway. If he hadn’t gone training at all, or if his robot hadn’t malfunctioned.

When that was too terrifying to think about, Lance focused on getting his breathing back to normal.

Keith waited only a few seconds to start interrogating him.

“What were you doing out there?!” he said, sounding worried; frightened, even. Lance could do little but shake his head. Even though he was fine, he was safe, he felt like he couldn’t breathe. His hands were trembling.

“Dude.” Keith pressed his hand to Lance’s back, frowning with deep concern. “Are you okay?”

“I—“ _I could have died._ To his horror, the sound that burst from his lips was close to a sob. Humiliated, Lance clenched his eyes shut and let out a shuddering breath, pressing his forehead into the ground.

“Hey, hey, it’s, uh, it’s gonna be okay,” Keith said, lowering his voice to an awkward hush.

That startled a laugh from Lance, which quickly turned into another heaving sob.  

“Without you, I would have been dead,” Lance hissed, shoving his knuckles into his eyes to quell the flow of tears in vain.

“I…uh…” Keith stared at him in shock as he cried, clearly at a loss.

“Sorry, I know, sorry.” Lance tried to gather himself, turning away from Keith’s burning gaze. “I have something in my eye, I think.” He paused. “Thanks, Keith. I don’t know what I would have done without you showing up. For a while there I thought it was a ghost trying to kill me.”

He laughed once, hollowly, but Keith didn’t join in. He kept staring at Lance, eyes holding a question that Lance wasn’t certain he could answer.

“Who was that guy?” Lance demanded once he’d collected himself. Keith narrowed his eyes, taking the shift in stride, and began to explain the situation.

* * *

It had been a week since the events with Allura’s dad, but Lance still couldn’t go near the airlock without breaking into a cold sweat. He was fine when it came to getting into his lion, but whenever he was headed for that hallway in particular, he would without fail find a way to detour into a different part of the castle.

He wasn’t _afraid_ , he was just—things were catching up with him. He was beginning to realize that this was it. There was no turning back from the whole lion business, unless he wanted to risk giving the universe over to Zarkon.

As far as career opportunities went, ‘giant fighting robot’ had not been on his list of options.

Yet here he was. Fighting an evil alien with an entire fleet of soldiers that were hell-bent on killing all of them.

The logic had been easy to follow. At first. Get their lions, defeat Zarkon, and save the universe! It had seemed cool and heroic and he had enjoyed the idea of being the universe’s only hope. Only now, the reality of the situation was hitting him. Hard.

For one, he had no idea when—or if—they were going to see Earth again.

 _I miss my family,_ he thought, staring out into space. What he felt couldn’t be compared to Pidge or Allura’s grief, but it didn’t make him feel any less lousy when he looked into space, and realized just how far they were from home.

_I might never see them again._

Just the thought of it made him feel like something hollow opened up inside his chest.

A sudden, loud bang broke him out of his trance. He realized with a start that he was standing in front of the training room.

From his position in the hallway, he was able to peek into the training room without being seen, so peek he did. It was just Keith in there by himself as usual, testing his bayard against the training dummy.

Lance know this because lately he found himself visiting the training room pretty often. Not to train, but to sit. Hang out. Sometimes Shiro or one of the others showed up, but ninety percent of the time, it was all Keith. Well, Lance, too, but Keith didn’t know that. No one did. 

See, when he said ‘hang out’, he really meant, ‘hide away from the world’. Lance would get there earlier than everyone so he could sit up on the balcony to watch while playing a game or reading a book or—whatever.

Lance maneuvered closer to the door to get a better look, trying to decide if it was worth getting to the balcony without being seen by Keith so he could watch without feeling weird.

He would never admit to it in a million years, but there was something calming about being near Keith. Maybe it was the fact that he could keep fighting that training dummy without worrying that it would suddenly start to actually try and kill him. Maybe it was because, despite all odds, he’d been the one person Lance was least enthusiastic about joining the paladins, and the one person that he was starting to trust more and more as time went on.

He had to face it eventually: Keith was starting to grow on him. Like a fungus. A frowny, grouchy little fungus with a mullet and gorgeous grey eyes—

“Are you just gonna stand there all day?”

Lance jumped, turning to face the origin of the voice.

“Maybe,” he replied waveringly. He hadn’t expected to be caught standing around like an idiot. “What of it? Can’t handle me watching you fight? Afraid I’ll discover all your weaknesses?”

“As if.” Keith rolled his eyes. “It’s just weird that you watch all the time, but don’t do any actual training.”

Lance fought the urge to blush. He’d thought he’d been subtle with his visits, but apparently, Keith had known the entire time, and he hadn’t said a word. He’d probably been laughing about it with all their friends behind his back, that jerk.

“Hey! Maybe I am training. After you’re gone,” he added. “Wouldn’t want you to figure out my weaknesses before I figure out yours!”

“I feel like sometimes you forget we’re supposed to be teammates.”

“Just because we work together doesn’t mean I can’t still kick your butt.”

“Whatever.” Keith sighed, but there was a smile on his face when he turned away. “Stay, don’t stay, I don’t care, but it would be nice to have a sparring partner that isn’t a robot. He’s kind of predictable nowadays.”

It was a total lie and they both knew it, but never let it be said that Lance backed down from a challenge.

“All right, all right.” Lance stretched his arms above his head with pseudo-leisure. “I guess I can give you a little taste of this.” He whipped out his bayard, and trained the newly formed gun directly at Keith. “You sure you wanna do this? I mean, I do have the advantage.”

“Uh huh.” Keith brandished his sword, and before Lance could get in a word edgewise, he charged, swinging his bayard at Lance’s side.

They were both conveniently in full gear (a habit that had become useful when they needed to get to their lions quickly), which meant that Lance didn’t have to worry nearly as much about getting hurt as he sidestepped and aimed back at Keith. He fired two shots, but they missed; the close quarters made it difficult to aim.

They darted around the room, an intricate dance that ended up being more like an awkward shuffle because Keith kept going for short range, making it harder on Lance. His saving grace was that, for all intents and purposes, he had been learning about Keith’s fighting style. This meant that he was able to predict many of Keith’s moves before they happened, giving him a chance to fight back.

An hour later found them gasping for breath, still in good shape and sizing each other up. Lance had managed to shoot both legs and the spot just above his left hip, and Keith had only left a stinging bruise on the outside of his thigh. Granted, Keith hadn’t been trying as hard as Lance knew that he could—not that he’d ever admit to knowing that.

While he was preoccupied with his thoughts, Keith took the opportunity to charge for a full frontal attack, swinging his sword at Lance, who could do little but block it with his gun. The following blow sent his bayard and shield skidding across the room to clatter uselessly against the wall.

Lance stared at the empty space in his hand, unprepared for when Keith tossed his own bayard aside and knocked him flat on his back.

“Whoa, ow!” he cried, trying to wriggle out from under Keith. His wrists were pinned, and as he struggled, Keith’s grip only grew tighter.

“What are you really doing here?” Keith asked, a non sequitur that threw Lance for a loop.

“Wha—huh? What do you mean?”

“I mean—“ Keith leaned forward bringing their faces close together. “Why have you been acting weird lately? Last week was pretty scary, but I’ve seen you so—“

“Wha-at, afraid?” Lance scoffed. “I wasn’t afraid. I was totally cool the entire time.”

“I didn’t say you were,” Keith said, frowning. “I’m just…worried, okay? You haven’t been yourself.”

“Um, kind of impossible.” He flashed Keith a cocky grin, but underneath his heart was pounding. When did Keith start caring? “Only one guy can be this good, and that guy’s me.”

“Can you be serious for one second?” Keith snapped, his grip tightening briefly. “You’ve been spacing out ever since we had to get rid of that AI controlling the ship. If this keeps going on, you’ll be endangering not only yourself, but also the rest of the team. Is that what you want?”

Lance’s smile faded into a tight, unhappy frown.

“No,” he replied quietly, jerking his wrists out from under Keith’s fingers. Keith sat up, and Lance followed suit, throwing his gaze somewhere off to the left. “I just…can’t deal with all of this like the rest of you guys, okay? I _have_ to be like this.”

“What do you mean?” Keith moved off of him, watching him with eyes like a hawk. “Have to be like what?”

“Look, it doesn’t—“ he sighed. “I’ve just been thinking a lot about, y’know, the what-ifs. What if we never get to see Earth again? What if we don’t get out of this mess for another few years? Who knows where fighting Zarkon will take us, o-or how long. What if we…” he swallowed thickly. “I can’t stop thinking about it. I miss the grass. I miss the ocean. I miss the sky, and Earth-style hamburgers, and taking baths in a bathtub, and most of all? I miss my _family_.”

Keith was still staring at him. Lance kept his eyes trained on a smudge on his shoe, wary of seeing what expression he was making. It was likely that he was shocked to see someone as cool and collected as Lance showing his more vulnerable side. Yeah, that had to be it.

“You’re not alone in this,” Keith said, gently. “I think all of us feel the same way.”

“Wait, really?” He scoffed. “You guys are always so collected. Especially Hunk. He’s like a rock.” Lance wrapped his arms around himself, feeling small. “I feel like I’m five seconds from having a breakdown whenever someone so much as mentions Zarkon.”

“We’re a long way from home, and there wasn’t much time to adjust.” Keith leveled Lance with a smile that was probably meant to be reassuring, but came off as more unnerving. “I was trying to remember Allura’s name when we were in the middle of forming Voltron for the first time.”

That pulled a laugh out of Lance. “Really? To keep from having a full-blown panic attack, I kept trying to decide whether Coran’s accent was British or Australian.”

“Definitely an Aussie,” Keith teased.

Lance leaned forward and rested his head on his knees, flashing Keith a smile. “You think?”

Keith’s smile settled into something more natural, which was a rare sight in its own. Lance’s heart skipped a beat. He was suddenly reminded of the night he’d gotten wrecked by the enemy.

_We had a bonding moment. I cradled you in my arms!_

Lance repressed a shiver.

“You know, I think this is the first time in a while we’ve had a normal conversation,” Keith said, shifting forward. He placed a friendly hand onto Lance’s shoulder and leaned in closer.

“I guess you’re not so bad,” Lance squeaked, hyper-aware of the point of contact. Trying to focus on anything but the feeling of Keith’s warm hand on his shoulder, he began tracing patterns on the floor with his fingertips.

“So, uh, Keith.”

“Hm?”

“Why do you spend all your time in here training? It can’t really be that fun to get your ass kicked by a robot.”

“Not all the time,” Keith admitted. “But it’s something to do. Keeps my mind off of all the stuff going on. Kind of like what we talked about. I feel just as unsure about the future as you do.”

“I guess.” Lance sighed. “I miss the internet. There were so many animal videos I needed to watch. So many sloths, never to be seen with these handsome eyes of mine.”

A slow, cautious smirk spread across Keith’s face. “Sloths, really?”

“What?” Lance asked, offended. “Adorable animal videos are universally enjoyable. Sloths especially. I bet Coran would love Koalas.”

Keith hid his smile into his fist, shoulders quivering with suppressed laughter.

“You know…” he sounded tentative, “I expected you to say something about how much you missed the hot girls or something.”

Lance had to concede to Keith’s point. From an outsider’s point of view, it was easy to assume that he was flying straight. In truth, while he had a whole lot of love for the ladies, he was just as interested in the dudes. It was just…harder, for some reason.

“Talk about boring,” Lance said. “I’m more about the real deal.”

“I’ve had you pegged all wrong, huh,” Keith teased, bumping his shoulder into Lance’s.

Opening his mouth, Lance tried to come up with a way to slip in that he wasn’t exactly, totally straight without making it weird. Usually it was easier to go along with that assumption, but this was _Keith_ he was talking about.

Keith, who he’d been watching since freshman year. Keith, who he’d been ecstatic to meet and rub good-natured shoulders (admittedly, he had been way more antagonistic than he intended), only to realize that he had no memory of being in the same class. Keith, the perfect blend of smart and handsome that made Lance feel both jealous and infatuated.

“Yeah,” he finally said. “I guess so. Talking about being away from Earth makes me wonder how all the cadets are doing.”

“Probably better than you were.”

“Hey!” Lance shoved his elbow in Keith’s direction. “I made it to fighter pilot, thank you.”

“Only because I dropped out.”

“It’s not my fault you were a sore loser.”

“Whatever.” Keith nudged him back with his elbow, which quickly turned into a short wrestling match where they tried to topple each other. Lance was eventually able to get the upper hand and shove Keith on his back with a triumphant cry.

“Ha!” he gloated, planting his hands on either side of Keith. “That’s payback for earlier.”

“Uh huh.” Keith smiled, and it made Lance’s stomach do flips. It took him a second to realize how close they were; how close he was to Keith. Why hadn’t he noticed how pretty his eyes were?

“Uh, Lance? Earth to Lance. You okay? You look a little red.”

Keith’s fingers brushed Lance’s shoulder and he flinched.

“Why would something be wrong?” he squeaked. He couldn’t look away. “I definitely wasn’t thinking that you have beautiful eyes, and I definitely don’t like you. That would just be—weird, right?”

Keith’s eyes went saucer-wide. “You like me?”

Lance blinked. “I just said that out loud, didn’t I.”

“Yeah. You did.”

“Oh my god.” Lance sat up and buried his face in his hands. “ _Oh my god_. I’m an idiot. Please, please forget that I said anything.”

“I don’t think so,” said Keith, sounding surprisingly jovial instead of disgusted. “It’s kind of hard to forget anything about you, Lance.”

“Oh ha ha—wait.” He lifted his head and looked at Keith, who had averted his gaze. He was even redder than Lance. He leaned forward, up in Keith’s personal space, which only made his blush deepen. “Hold up. Really?”

“I— yeah.” Keith’s chanced a glance at him. “Maybe? I don’t know. I didn’t realize what it was until you mentioned it, but l haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.”

“Since when?”

“It started when I saved you from the airlock. I was worried, but when you were crying, I also thought you were kind of…cute.”

“You thought I was cute when I was crying? That’s so creepy.”

“Not like you’re any better,” Keith retorted. “You’ve been watching me train almost every day since then! That’s just as creepy.”

“Okay, I’ll admit to that.” He crossed his arms. “Wait, I always thought you hated me.”

“People change,” Keith grumbled. “And you said you liked me first. I should be asking you that.”

Lance faltered, sitting back on his heels. “I—I might have thought you were kind of hot when you rescued me. Just a little, though. Don’t let it go to your head!”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Keith drawled. He sat up, returning Lance’s earlier favor by leaning in close, flashing him a devilish smirk. “So does that mean you want to go out with me?”

Lance could feel his cheeks burning. Being that pretty should be illegal.

“Maybe. If that’s what you want. I’ve never been with a guy though.” He averted his gaze. “Actually, I’ve never been with,” he took a breath, gathering his courage, “anyone. I’ve never dated anyone before.”

“No way.” Keith quirked an eyebrow. “What about all that talk? What about you flirting with Allura and that alien girl that stole our ship?”

“I didn’t actually think that was going anywhere, and I started panicking when she got all handsy with me.” He inhaled. “The truth is: I’m not as much of a lady’s man as you think I am, happy?”

“I don’t know if happy is the world I’d use, but I might be getting there.” He grinned. “So I’m your first?”

“Well, not yet! You haven’t asked me out.”

“Why can’t you ask me?”

“Because…because!” Lance snapped. “You’re the one that tricked me into admitting it.”

“I didn’t trick you into anything,” Keith protested. “You did that on your own!”

“So what? You’re supposed to man up and ask me!”

“You’re also a man, you know,” Keith pointed out. By this point, they were leaning so close that Lance could feel Keith’s breath ghost across his lips.

“Shut up!”

“You shut up!”

“Maybe I’ll shut you up!”

“I’d like to see you try.”

“Maybe I will, because I really want to kiss you right now!” Lance said. After realizing his mistake, his eyes widened and he slapped his hand over his mouth.

“You—really?” Keith’s lips spread into a breath-taking smile. He needed to stop doing that.

“Didn’t I just say I wanted to go out with you? Ugh, this is so frustrating.”

“I’m beginning to think that’s going to be a theme with us.” Keith chuckled, and Lance’s heart all but melted.

“That doesn’t sound like a good thing,” he grumbled, his mouth forming a pout.

“Hey,” Keith reached out and cupped his cheek, mouth forming a cheeky smile. “Maybe it will be. For us. I like you, frustrations and all.”

“Well I like you, too.” Lance slipped his palm over Keith’s and bit his lip. “So, uh, I guess we should—do you want to—?“ He squeezed his eyes shut. _Why can’t I say it?_

“Will you go out with me?” Keith finished for him, tugging Lance closer.

“Finally!” Relieved, but not to be outdone, Lance smirked. “Hey! I guess this means I’m a man’s man now, huh?”

Keith rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. “You are just so— _mph_!”

While he was distracted trying to criticize Lance’s brilliant epiphany, he took the opportunity to kiss Keith, striking while the iron was. He couldn’t let Keith take all the credit, after all. When he pulled back, the expression on his face was _so_ worth it.

“I—you— what?” he was flabbergasted, blushing wildly.

“It’s called a kiss, honey.” Lance fluttered his eyelashes. “I bet that was your first, wasn’t it?”

“Dude, I know for a fact that this was _your_ first kiss, Lance.”

“Well, not for long!” Lance went in for another kiss, only this time, Keith was able to kiss him back. His lips were soft and warm, but a little dry from all that running around. It was also awkward and unskilled and totally amazing. As they pulled away, both of them couldn’t stop grinning.

“Guess that’s makes this official.”

“Better change my status,” Lance joked, haltingly. His smile slowly fell. 

That brought up a good point. Even though they were together, who was there to tell? The rest of the crew would probably find it hilarious, but what about his family? His sisters used to tease him endlessly about his love life, or lack thereof.

“Hey, don’t look like that.” Keith gripped him by the back of his neck for another kiss, and wow that was hot. “We’re going to get home, Lance. I promise. First, we just need to defeat Zarkon. With voltron, that’ll be a piece of cake.”

“Right.” Lance flashed him a smile, and sat up straight. He raised his fist. “Yeah, you’re right! We can do this. First though, I want to get out of this suit and eat dinner. I’m _starving_.”

“Me, too.” Keith stood, helping Lance to his feet, and after a pause where neither of them were sure how to proceed, they started walking for the door. “Want to meet at the dining hall in half an hour?”

“Sounds good.” Lance thought about hugging him, but ultimately decided against it. He wasn’t nervous, just taking things slowly. He stepped away, rubbing the back of his neck, when something occurred to him. “What should we tell the rest of them? About us.”

“We don’t’ have to lie. We’ll just tell the truth: you’re a man’s man now. More specifically, my man.”

Keith pointed to himself, looking unreasonably proud. Lance grinned, his nerves fading. He was starting to like the sound of it.


End file.
